Method of making dies for shoe parts.



E. 0. KRENTLBR METHOD OF MAKING DIES FOR SHOE PARTS.

APPLICATION FILL!) O(JT.3I, 1911.

METHGD OF MAKING DIES FOR SHOE PARTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 15, 1914..

Application filed October 31, 1911. Serial No. 657329.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN O. KBENTLER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented an Improvement in Methods of Making Dies for Shoe Parts, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like arts.

In the present day manufacture of shoes the cost of the dies required for dieing out the several parts constitutes a considerable item of expense, especially by reason of the many styles of shoes required by the trade and the frequent changes in such st les. The dies for blanking out the various s oe parts as heretofore constructed have been expensive in the making, requiring a hot forging of the sameto shape on the pattern, and the special shaping forms or atterns required in previous processes of die making have also added considerably to the expense, so that altogether, as stated, the cumulative cost of the dieing outfits required for all the various styles of shoes necessary to be produced has been a serious item of expense and one continually recurring on account of the constantly changin styles and the ever present demand of t e public for new shapes.

My invention consists in a novel method of forming these dies, whereby they can be produced at a small part of the cost heretofore involved, and wherein the pattern forms required can also be made with little trouble or expense.

A further important feature of my novel process is that I am enabled to employ cheap and thin stock for the cutting blades, which could not possibly be utilized as. the material from which cutting dies could be made in accordance with prior methods. Thus I am enabled to utilize such thin and cheap sheet metal for the cutting stock, so that it requires but little or no sharpening and when sharpened can be quickly broughtto a keen cutting edge. An important advantage in this feature of the invention is that cutting portion of the die was made had to be shaped under heat and pressure.

My novel process is particularly advantageous when employed in connection with the manufacture of dies for cutting out shoe patterns, such patterns being often of very involved contour and requiring to be constructed of a high and expensive quality of steel, to afford a lasting cutting edge.

In practising my novel method I preferably apply a strengthening web substantially perpendicular to the thin medium constituting the cutting parts of the die, and I preferably apply this strengthening web remote from the cutting edges, so that the die may be reversible and the web may be used as a means for exerting the cutting blow upon the die. The strengthening web may be arranged either interiorly or exteriorly of the cutting part of the die and preferably will be substantially on the medial line between each cutting edge.

The invention will be better understood from the following detailed description, taken in connection With the accompanying drawings and will be thereafter pointed out in the appended claim.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating my improved process of manufacture as applied to a die for dieing out a particular form of vamp, this form being selected merely as typical of the various forms required for the different shoe parts. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one form of my improved die. Fig. 3 is a similar view of another form of die constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 4 is a similar view of still another form in which my invention may be employed, and Figs. 5 and 6 are detail views illustrating a step in the manufacture.

In carrying out my invention, I provide 5 a form 10, preferably of wood, sawed out with a peripheral outline corresponding to that of the shoe part to be produced. This form is fixed to any suitable base 11 and a belt or ribbon 12 of ordinary sheet iron is fitted around and made to closely conform to the peripheral outline of the form 10. This ribbon may be of any desired width, according to the thickness desired for the die, a suitable width having been found in 15 practice to be about three-fourths of an inch,

and the form 10 is of a somewhat less thickness so as not to extend quite up to the top of the iron band, as seen in Fig. 1. This sheet iron band, having been. made to conform to the peripheral contour of the form 10, is held in place therearound by suitably placed pins or nails 13 set into the block 11. A web 14, having a peripheral outline corresponding to that of the formed band 12, is

blanked out and fitted to the band 12. This web may be formed so that its outer periphery fits the inner periphery of the band 12, as seen in Fig. 1, or it may have its interior cut out so as to leave an inner periphery adapted to closely fit over the outside of the band 12, as seen at 15 in Fig. 4.

In carrying out the method with the forming block and apparatus of Fig. 1, the web 14 is held in position along adjacent the top edge of the band 12, being shown as fixed to the block 10 so as tobe immovable, by screws 16, and the web is then welded to, or otherwise made rigid with, the band, thus forming the die as seen in Fig. 2. This securing of the web to the band is conveniently effected by molecularly uniting the two together by the use of the oxy-acetylene flame and Norway iron wire for joining the parts together, this operation being illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 wherein a blow-pipe is indicated at a and a section of Norway iron wire at b but any other process or means for rigidly assembling the web and band may be employed without departing from the s irit of the invention. The extremities of the band 12 being in abutting relation and preferably coming together at a corner of the die as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, are fixed together desirably by molecular union of a welding or soldering character, which may be carried out similarly to. the manner in which the band and web are united. The periphery of the bottom ofthe band 12 having been reduced to form a cutting edge, the material of the die is carbonized and tempered by any known or suitable process, the specific nature of which forms no part of the present invention, and

after any necessary re-sharpening of the bottom peripheral cutting edge, the die is ready for use, the web 14 being fixed in any suitable manner to the reciprocating operating head.

In producing the form of Fig. 3, the forming member has a thickness slightly less than half the width of the sheet iron band 12 and the web 14 can thus be fitted down within the band to a position midway between its edges where it is welded or otherwise secured, as just explained.

In producing the form of Fig. 4, the band l2 may be formed and held in shape in like manner as previously described, and the web 14: is fitted thereover, either down to a point approximately midway between the edges of the band, and the web and band secured to-, gether as described.

It will be understood that in the form shown in Figs. 3 and 4 where the web is positioned intermediate the edges of the band, both these edges may be reduced to form cutting edges, one for right and the other for left blanks, and it is also to be noted that the dies produced of the form shown in Figs. 1 and 2 may be changed from rights to lefts, and vice versa, merely by detaching the form 10 from the block 11 and securing it the other side up. The forms 10 of any desired contour for the different shoe parts can be very cheaply and expeditiously produced by sawing the same from wood stock of the proper thickness, and the shaping of the iron band therearound is likewise an operation which can be quickly and easily performed without special machinery or tools, and with the metal cold, as distinguished from previous processes requiring the metal to be heated for manipulation. -The webs can likewise be blanked out of ordinary sheet metal without difiiculty and the assemblage of parts and finishing of the die is effected in a very simple and inexpensive manner, not requiring either any specially skilled labor or special appliances therefor, and the dies produced, while quite as strong, durable and eflicient as those heretofore in use, can be completed at relatively small cost. 8

It is to be understood that the details incident to my improved method may be varied to a large extent and the specific steps set forth are hence to be understood as illustrative and not restrictive, as I have made clear from the manner in which I have claimed the same hereinafter.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the invention may be carried out in various different ways as to details and it is, therefore to be understood as not limited in these respects or in any way, except as de- V fined in the appended claim.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

The herein described improvement in the 5 art of making dies, which consists in molding thin stock incapable of holding its contour under ressure, and of sufiicient thinness and so ness to be molded in the contour of a die at ordinary temperatures, ap-

10 plying a thin transverse web to said thin stock perpendicularly therewith and molecu-' larly uniting said web and: band to constitute an integral angle iron construction, re-

ducing one edge of the thin stock to a cutting ed e and then tempering and hardening sai cutting edge,

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ANNA M. HonF'r, MINNIE R. Honr'r. 

